The Land Rights Movement

25 YEARS OF NATIVE TITLE RECOGNITION Contents Settlement and 1 disposession Yirrkala Bark Petitions 1963 2 The Freedom Ride 1965 2 Wave Hill Station walk off 3 1966–1975 Gove Land Rights case 4 1968–1971 Aboriginal Tent Embassy 4 1972 Yolgnu claimants in the Land Rights case over the Gove Peninsula discuss aspects of Racial Discrimination Act 5 the hearing outside the courtroom in Canberra, September 1970. Source: National Archives of Australia. 1975 Reproduced with permission from Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Aboriginal Land Rights (NT) 6 © Commonwealth of Australia. Act 1976 Noonkanbah 6 THE ROAD TO NATIVE TITLE: 1978–1980 THE LAND RIGHTS MOVEMENT Mabo No 2 6 1982–1992 Settlement and dispossession Paul Keating Redfern 7 From the time of first European settlement, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Speech 1992 Australians have fought to maintain, and have recognised, their traditional rights to ownership of land. In 1788 the colony of New South Wales was established and the founding of Australia as a British colony had begun. The colony was settled on the basis of the doctrine of international law whereby the continent was deemed to be terra nullius—land belonging to no-one. Despite the obvious presence of Indigenous people, in the eyes of the British the land was considered to be practically unoccupied, without settled inhabitants and without settled law. The Colony was claimed for the British Sovereign on 26 January 1788. There is ongoing debate about the legal status of the ‘settlement’ as the land was clearly occupied and; there was no treaty and no (declared) war. The concept of terra nullius was applied in later decisions of Australian courts though not explicitly stated. In the Gove Land Rights case (Milirrpum), Blackburn J held that at the time of Sovereignty the land was ‘practically unoccupied’. THE ROAD TO NATIVE TITLE: THE LAND RIGHTS MOVEMENT The notion that Australia was ‘practically unoccupied’ The petitions affirm: at the time of its annexation, largely remained That the land in question has been hunting and unchallenged as the legal basis upon which Australia was settled by Europeans until 1992. In Mabo No 2, food gathering land for the Yirrkala tribes from the High Court rejected the ‘enlarged notion of terra time immemorial; we were all born here. nullius’ which, though unstated, had underpinned land That places sacred to the Yirrkala people, as well law in Australia for over 200 years, and had justified as vital to their livelihood are in the excised land, the dispossession of Indigenous people from their especially Melville Bay. lands. The rejection of that notion cleared away the fictional impediment to common law recognition of That the people of this area fear that their needs Indigenous rights and interests in land and waters. and interests will be completely ignored as they have been ignored in the past, and they fear that the fate which has overtaken the Larrakeah tribe Increasing activism: Some significant will overtake them. events of the land rights movement In response to these representations from the Yolngu People, a bipartisan Parliamentary Committee of Prior to the Mabo decision, the 1960s saw increasing Inquiry was established. In its report, the Committee activism by Aboriginal Australians for recognition of acknowledged the rights of the Yolngu People as set their land rights and civil rights. This occurred against out in the petitions and recommended the payment the backdrop of civil rights movements globally, in of compensation, protection for sacred sites and India and South Africa and, perhaps most significantly, monitoring of the mining project by an ongoing in the United States of America. These movements parliamentary committee. saw growing international and domestic awareness of the injustice and iniquities of segregation and race The Yirrkala bark petitions are significant as based laws and policies. they marked a bridge between two traditions of law—Commonwealth law as it then stood, and the Indigenous laws of the land. They were the first traditional documents recognised by Yirrkala Bark Petitions 1963 the Commonwealth Parliament, and are the first documentary recognition of Indigenous people in Australian law. Though the recommendations of the Committee were not implemented and the Yirrkala bark petitions did not achieve the constitutional change sought, they did pave the way for eventual legal recognition of Indigenous rights in Australia. The Freedom Ride 1965 [T]he Freedom Ride is a copy of what happened in Yirrkala Bark Petitions, 1963. Source: Courtesy of AIATSIS, America, where people wanted to go out, get in a AIATSIS Collection, item AIAS.049.CN-N00004_02 bus, go out there and go to towns and cities and expose discrimination and prejudice wherever it In 1963 the Yolgnu People of Yirrkala presented two may be. And racism. And that’s what we wanted petitions to Federal Parliament in protest against the to do, all of us students. And we thought, well sale of part of the Arnhem Aboriginal Land Reserve to we’ll go into the country towns of New South a bauxite mining company without any consultation with the traditional owners. The painted bark Wales. petitions, written in both Yolngu Matha and English, Charles Perkins described the Yolngu People’s traditional connection to the Gove Peninsula in north eastern Arnhem Land in In 1965, 29 Sydney University students embarked on the Northern Territory. the Freedom Ride led by Charles Perkins, an Arrernte man and third year Arts student. The Freedom 2 │ Title 2 │ The road to native title: The land rights movement Ride was a bus tour of regional New South Wales The song tells the uplifting story of the Gurindji (NSW) aimed at opposing racial discrimination and people’s struggle for equality and land rights in the exposing mistreatment of Aboriginal Australians. In 1960s and 1970s. small country towns in NSW, Aboriginal people were barred from swimming pools, RSL clubs and cafes and often refused service at shops and bars. They endured segregation at schools, limited employment opportunities and were also forbidden to live in towns, being forced into reserves and missions on the edge of rural population centres. The Freedom Ride brought the issues of racism and racial discrimination to national attention. Watch: Kev Carmody and Paul Kelly perform "From Little Things Big Things Grow" On this great day, I, Prime Minister of Australia, speak to you on behalf of all Australian people – all those who honour and love this land we live in. For them I want to say to you: I want this to acknowledge that we Australians have still much to do to redress the injustice and oppression that has for so long been the lot of Black Australians. Vincent Lingiari, I solemnly hand to you these deeds as proof, in Australian law, that these lands belong to the Gurindji People and I put into Charles Perkins talking to a group of Aboriginal people outside a house. Source: Mitchell Library, State Library of your hands part of the earth itself as a sign that New South Wales © Tribune/SEARCH Foundation this land will be the possession of you and your children forever. Wave Hill Station walk off Gough Whitlam, Prime Minister, 1975 1966–1975 In 1966, Vincent Lingiari led 200 Gurindji stockmen and their families in a walk off from Wave Hill Station in the Northern Territory. The strike was in protest against poor work and pay conditions. Significantly, it was also a protest about the appropriation of traditional Gurindji lands for the creation of pastoral properties. For nine years the Gurindji resided at Daguragu (Wattie Creek), until 1975 when Prime Minister Gough Whitlam ceremonially handed back a portion of the Gurindji traditional lands to the Gurindji People. This demonstration of resistance and resilience is an important achievement in the history of the struggle of Aboriginal Australians for recognition of their rights to, and responsibility for, land. We want to live on our land, our way. Vincent Lingiari The Gurindji walk off contributed to the growing Prime Minister Gough Whitlam pours soil into the hands of pressure on government to address the question of traditional land owner Vincent Lingiari, Northern Territory, land rights. 1975. Source: Mervyn Bishop/Art Gallery of New South Wales. Reproduced with permission from From Little Things Big Things Growis the well-known Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet song by Australian artists, Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody. © Commonwealth of Australia The road to native title: The land rights movement│ 3 Gove Land Rights case obligatory by a definable community which made ritual and economic use of the areas claimed. 1968–1971 (Milirrpum v Nabalco Pty Ltd (1971) In 1968, after the recommendations of the 17 FLR 141 [4]) Parliamentary Committee inquiry conducted in The Gove Land Rights case created wider public response to the Yirrkala bark petitions were not awareness of the claim of the Yolgnu and the legal implemented, the Yolngu People from Yirrkala in problems of Indigenous people throughout Australia. north-east Arnhem Land took their case to the Campaigns to change the law to provide just answers Northern Territory Supreme Court. This was the first for Indigenous people increased. Another important litigation in Australia on native title. step towards native title had been taken. Aboriginal Tent Embassy 1972 After the decision in the Gove Land Rights case, Indigenous people travelled to Canberra to ask the Prime Minister of the time, William McMahon, to give them title to their land and to protect their interests, particularly in relation to mining. On the eve of Australia Day in January 1972, the Prime Minister issued a press statement which included the rejection of land rights in favour of 50 year leases to Aboriginal Communities.

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